Despite the fact that Shakespeare is mostly known for its tragedian playwrights,
yet, in The Taming Of The Shrew, he once again proves that he is capable to
write anything even comedy. The Taming Of The Shrew is a play within a play.
However, the play takes place towards the end of the 16th century. Most of the
comedy scenes are shifted from the city to the country and back to the city.
Therefore, most of the scenes took place in the city of Padua, Italy.
Christopher Sly is a drunken tinker who appears in the induction of the play.
Nevertheless, he is fooled by a lord stating that he is a lord and has been mad
for fifteen years. Therefore, there is a play that is to be performed to the
drunker. In the play there are two main characters and other minor
personalities. As one of the main characters, Katherine is called a shrew, even
by her father Baptista, but Katherine has a deeper character than what she seems
to appear. Katherine's reactions are due to the preferences that her father
resembles between her and her sister. However, as a consequence to her fathers'
preference she is hurt and seeks for revenge. It is an immature response, but
the only one she knows, and it serves for her dual purpose of her hurt and
revenge. The transformation that she undergoes near the end of the play is not
one of character, but one of attitude. She alters dramatically from the bitter
accursed shrew to the obedient and happy wife when she discover that her husband
loves her enough to attempt to change her for her own good, as well for his. The
other main character is Pretruchio her husband. On the surface he appears to be
a rough, noisy, and insensitive, one who cares nothing for Katherine's feelings
so long as she has money. Yet, in the inside Petruchio's intention is not
interested for her money but the challenge of capturing her because of the
reputation that she has. Like a secondary character is Katherine's sister Bianca.
Apparently in her gentle behavior, she is an unkind sister and through the play
she is in fact a disobedient wife. She fosters her father's attitude of
favoritism for herself and dislike for Katherine by playing the part of a whole
victim. As another secondary character, there is Lucentio. He is a wealthy man
devoted to Bianca for obscure reasons. He marries Bianca after going through
many difficult tasks in order for them to get married. They are perhaps a
typical pair of immature lovers; they think only of themselves, and each
considers his individual wishes before those of his beloved. Baptista is the
father of Katherine and Bianca. He is the harried father, having difficulty
marrying his two daughters because one of them is a shrew. He is not, an object
of sympathy, since Katherine is a shrew because of his treatment of her. He
ignores the question of his daughters' happiness in seeking mates for them. He
wishes, in the case of Bianca, to make a good bargain and obtain the highest
possible financial, concessions from the suitors and, in Katherine's case,
simply to get rid of a problem child. A minor character is Vincention. He is the
father Lucentio. He is extremely fond of his son and finds himself in grief when
he discovers that his son may have been harmed. He has a bad temper and he
displays a worse anger when he finds out that Tranio has tricked him. Hortensio
is a suitor of Bianca. He is basically a good man, but perhaps foolish.
Throughout the play he declares his real identity to Petruchio and later he
discovers that Bianca and Lucentio have been having a romance between them.
Gremio, he is called a pantaloon and is characterized as such. As elderly
gentleman, he seeks the hand of a young girl. Grumio, Petruchio's servant; he is
a comic servant who provides several humor scenes. Finally, Tranio, he
originally adopts Lucentio's position with some of reluctance, but he displays
an increasing enthusiasm for the role as the play progresses, until he is
denounced as fake by Vincentio. In the play there is a plot and subplot. In
order for Bianca to get married her sister Katherine has to get married first.
The plot consists of Petruchio arriving from the country with his servant,
Grumio, intending to find himself a wife. He visits his old friend Hortensio,
who jokingly suggest that he marry Katherine. Petruchio declares that her
fortune is enough for him, regardless of her personality. Petruchio announces
himself to Baptista as a suitor of Katherine and holds a stormy, private
interview with the young lady, after which he sets a wedding date even though
Katherine strongly objects. He then leaves for Venice to prepare for the
wedding. Petruchio arrives at his wedding very late and ridiculously attired.
After marrying Katherine, he forces her to return to the country with him
immediately, leaving the wedding banquet to the guests. When they arrive
home-cold, tired, and hungry-he refuses to let her eat or sleep. He finds fault
with the meat and the making of the bed, pretending that they are not good
enough for Katherine and she shall therefore have none. Petruchio is taming his
wife as he is would tame an animal. However, Petruchio continues his taming. He
offers to purchase finery for Katherine for a trip to her father's house, but
then finds fault with all the haberdasher and a tailor have to offer, concluding
that she must wear what she has already. The subplot in the play is with Bianca.
Lucentio, a young man from Pisa, arrives in Padua with his servants, Tranio and
Biondello, to study. He sees and falls at once in love with Bianca. Lucentio, in
disguise, offers himself to Baptista as a tutor to Bianca, and Hortensio, in
disguise, does likewise. To disvert, Baptista's attention from Lucentio, Tranio
becomes another suitor for Bianca's hand, assuming Lucentio's identity, at his
master's instruction. Baptista now informs Gremio and Tranio that whichever one
of them offers the finest dowry may have Bianca in marriage. Tranio wins out,
but Baptista says that he must have Lucentio's father agreement to the dowry,
since it is a large amount that he cannot believe that Vincentio would be part
of it. Lucentio, in the disguise of a tutor, declares himself to Bianca, who is
at first cautious, but soon finds herself in love with him. Hortensio is
horrified at Bianca's behavior toward Lucentio, and gives up her suit for her,
declaring that he will marry a widow who has loved him for some time. Tranio
persuades a Pendant to assume the role of Lucentio's father, by telling him that
he is a citizen from Mantua and he is in danger in Padua and must therefore
pretend to be from Pisa. The climax of the main plot is therefore, when the
shrew is tamed, although she was never a real shrew. Petruchio, Katherine, and
Hortensio are on the way to Baptista's house. On their way Petruchio remarks how
bright the moon is, and Katherine tells him that it is the sun rather than the
moon. Petruchio replies that it will be what he says it is or they will return
home at once and not go to Padua. After all she agrees with him that the sun is
the moon"…be it moon, or sun, or what you please to call it a
rush-candle, Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me"(The Taming Of The
Shrew, Act IV-scene V, lines15-17, pg.187). During their trip, they overtake
Vincentio, on his way to Padua to visit his son. Petruchio calls him a young
girl, and Katherine agrees that he is indeed a lovely young virgin. On their way
Petruchio informs Vincentio that his son is about to marry with Katherine's
sister when they last saw him. However, he thinks that they are joking with him.
The climax of the subplot is when Lucentio and Bianca are married, and he admits
to the deception which he practiced to gain her love. When Petruchio, Katherine,
Hortensio, and Vincentio arrive in Padua and Vincentio knocks on the door, he
declares himself as the father of Lucentio. Moreover, Tranio, Baptista, and
Biondello pretend to not know and start calling him a lunatic, he thinks that
Tranio and Biondello have murdered his son. When the officer is about to arrest
the older man, Lucentio and Bianca appear and they say they are married and
Lucentio explained everything that he did in order to get married with Bianca.
After the confusion was solved the three newlywed couples gathered together in a
banquet in Lucentio's house. Hortensio and Lucentio are doubtful that Petruchio
was able to tame Katherine, therefore, they are laughing of him. Petruchio says
that his wife is the most obedient one from the three of them. Nevertheless,
each one of them called their wife. Bianca said that she was too busy and cannot
come, the widow states that Hortensio should go her instead, and Katherine as
being the most obedient she was the only one that went to her husband. In
addition, Petruchio orders to Katherine to bring the other two wives to the
dinning hall and delivers a lecture on the duty a wife owes her husband. After
all, they agree that Petruchio has tamed quite well Katherine. Love and marriage
are the concerns of Shakespeare's Taming Of The Shrew. The play offers different
methods in courting a woman and choosing a mate and then coming to the terms
with the mate that one has chosen. We see the differences of Petruchio-Katherine
and Lucentio-Bianca. The unhappy Katherine discovers how to be a happy
Katherine. Petruchio has turned her from unreasonable aggressiveness to
unreasonable submission, in order to obtain a comfortable compromise. On the
other hand, Bianca seems to be apparently the ideal woman and at the end of the
play she seems to be unpleasant and bad-tempered, now that she is married.

BibliographyShakespeare, William. The taming Of The Shrew. New York: Pocket Books,1992.